Lung Cancer in the U.S.

According to the 2006 American Cancer Society, Cancer Facts & Figures, an estimated 174,470 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with lung cancer and 162,460 people will die from this disease annually. Lung cancer is the second most common cancer among both women and men, second to breast and prostate cancer respectively. It accounts for 12.5% of all new cancer cases. Because of its low survival rate, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths, accounting for 29% of the total. In the late 1980's, lung cancer deaths for U.S. men stopped rising and have been slowly falling since the early 1990's. However, for women, lung cancer deaths continued to rise in the 1990's and are just beginning to plateau.

Risk Factors for Lung Cancer

Smoking is currently estimated to cause 85-90% of all lung cancer cases. The more you smoke the more likely you are to get lung cancer.

The risk of dying from lung cancer is 22 times higher among male smokers and 12 times higher among female smokers than among people who have never smoked.